Royal Road to Happiness VI

"Unhappiness is the hunger to get; Happiness is the hunger to give. True happiness must ever have the tinge of sorrow outlived, the sense of pain softened by the mellowing years, the chastening of loss that in the wondrous mystery of time transmutes our suffering into love and sympathy with others. If the individual should …

Continue reading Royal Road to Happiness VI

Royal Road to Happiness V

"Happiness is the voice of optimism, of faith, of simple, steadfast love. No cynic or pessimist can be really happy. A cynic is a man who is morally near-sighted, – and brags about it. He sees the evil in his own heart, and thinks he sees the world. He lets a mote in his eye …

Continue reading Royal Road to Happiness V

Royal Road to Happiness IV

What are the conditions necessary for happiness to flourish in your life? As we've considered, happiness comes not as a result of the perfect arrangement of things, people or circumstances, instead, happiness comes as you unselfishly dedicate your life to true purpose. Most see it as the sweet flavor of the carrot on the stick, …

Continue reading Royal Road to Happiness IV

Royal Road to Happiness II

"Happiness has a number of under-studies, – gratification, satisfaction, content, and pleasure, – clever imitators that simulate its appearance rather than emulate its method. Gratification is a harmony between our desires and our possessions. It is ever incomplete, it is the thankful acceptance of part. It is a mental pleasure in the quality of what …

Continue reading Royal Road to Happiness II

Doing Your Best VI

"And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." ~ Deuteronomy 34:7 No matter how old you are at this moment, you should be in the prime of your life. For many the prime years are too few and too late, relegated …

Continue reading Doing Your Best VI

Doing Your Best V

"The honest, faithful struggler should always realize that failure is but an episode in a true man's life,--never the whole story. It is never easy to meet, and no philosophy can make it so, but the steadfast courage to master conditions, instead of complaining of them, will help him on his way; it will ever …

Continue reading Doing Your Best V

Doing Your Best IV

Successful people know how to connect the dots between their present situation and their future goals. That said, successful people are not always happy people, which I imagine occurs whenever one's goals are not well-aligned with true purpose. The ability to connect the dots is something we learn from a very early age. We practice …

Continue reading Doing Your Best IV

Doing Your Best III

In continuation of our consideration yesterday, I’d like to join William George Jordan in offering a few starting points for coming to the point where you can express unconscious grace in all that you do. To begin with, Jordan observed: “The man who is slipshod and thoughtless in his daily speech, whose vocabulary is a …

Continue reading Doing Your Best III

Doing Your Best II

There is no greater habit to develop than that of giving your best in everything you undertake, without excuse, pretense or apology. It is a simple matter, really, yet we in all of our intelligence tend to complicate it unnecessarily. We let our emotions take over, develop bad habitual reactions and develop prejudices over time …

Continue reading Doing Your Best II

Doing Your Best I

"If a man honestly seeks to live his best at all times, that determination is visible in every moment of his living, no trifle in his life can be too insignificant to reflect his principle of living. The sun illuminates and beautifies a fallen leaf by the roadside as impartially as a towering mountain peak …

Continue reading Doing Your Best I